On January 28, 2021, the Province of Alberta announced that limited restrictions may be lifted as soon as Monday, February 8.
The Province shared a roadmap developed to help Albertans understand how restrictions will be eased in steps over the coming months. The “Path Forward” roadmap includes steps 1 through 4 with hospitalization benchmarks and the potential easing of certain restrictions.
Step 1 includes less than 600 hospitalizations and potentially easing restrictions for restaurants, indoor fitness, and indoor/outdoor children’s sport and performance (school-related only).
The following applies to Town facilities as of February 8, 2021:

Badlands Community Facility
• Remains closed until further notice
• Opening the BCF will be re-evaluated in Step 2

Drumheller Memorial Arena & Drumheller Aquaplex
• Only one-on-one or one-on-one household training is permitted for indoor fitness activities (for example, swimming pools, training figure skating on ice, one-on-one lessons).
• Sessions have to be scheduled or by appointment. No drop-in or groups allowed.
• Individual workouts without a trainer are not permitted.
• One-on-one sessions cannot interact with others and there must be a minimum of 3 metres distance between pairs of trainers and clients (aka sessions) in the same facility.
• Trainers must be professional, certified, and/or paid trainers who are providing active instruction and correction. Passive supervision of a physical activity is not considered training.
• Trainers must remain masked during the session. Clients are not required to wear a mask while doing high-intensity exercise.
• More than one trainer and client ‘pair’ are allowed into the rink, pool, ice surface, etc. with restrictions
• Availability of pool or ice time will be limited and re-evaluated in Step 2
“It’s not cost-effective at this time to re-open the Badlands Community Facility in Step 1 of the Provincial plan,” explains CAO, Darryl Drohomerski. “Our recreation team has been working with user groups for the arena and pool to determine their needs and make a plan.”
Town Hall will re-open to the public, however, it is still encouraged to limit in-person transactions and appointments as much as possible.

Students of Morrin School returned to the K-12 school in the Village of Morrin on Monday, February 1, following a temporary closure because of an outbreak of COVID-19 at the school.
The first cases of COVID-19 were reported in the school on Thursday, January 14, putting the school on alert status, which was upgraded to an outbreak and prompted staff and administrators to make the switch back to online learning temporarily.
Prairie Land School Division (PLSD) Superintendent Cam McKeage told the Mail, “In recognition of the health and safety concern for our school community, and the large number of close contacts to quarantine for the required 14 days, it only made sense we temporarily suspend in-class learning.”
McKeage notes there were six positive cases prior to students transitioning to online learning.
While some new cases have been reported since students transitioned, McKeage said this will not affect the reopening date, “Except for those identified as close contacts to those specific cases to which they could still be in quarantine.”
Students across the province returned to in-person classes on Monday, January 11 following a week of at-home learning after the winter break, with grade 7 to 12 students learning from home since November 30, 2020.
Morrin School principal Don Yavis said, “I am very proud of my staff, students, and parents for the way they handled the whole situation. We just came back to school from online (on Monday, January 11) and had to transition back to online. Our parents were fantastic and very supportive of the staff and students.”